Chapter 44: You are the challenger
Duhuang City had been gripped by fear for days, the recent string of brutal murders casting a pall over its streets.
Once night fell, pedestrians vanished, and households locked their doors, dreading they’d be next. The vibrant night markets, usually bustling, now closed early, the city shrouded in oppressive tension.
At that moment, a driverless taxi glided into the edge of the eastern abandoned residential zone. The door opened, and a foot stepped into the darkness.
“Dear passenger, this area has poor security. Please prioritize safety and avoid traveling alone.”
“Quit nagging, I got it,” Dongfang Cheng muttered, hefting a heavy duffel bag and stepping into the desolate, silent wasteland.
Pale moonlight barely lit the pitted cement road. Crumbling buildings loomed, their dark, empty windows like peering eyes, groaning in the night wind. Vines clung to ruined walls, casting clawing shadows under the moon.
The air reeked of decay, dampness, dust, and wild grass. A stray cat darted from a shadowy corner, letting out a shrill yowl before vanishing, leaving an unsettling rustle.
Dongfang dragged the duffel bag, its wheels grinding loudly in the eerie quiet, as he navigated the horror-movie-like abandoned zone.
He stopped at a small plaza formed by three dilapidated buildings. Across it, a narrow, pitch-black alley oozed a nauseating stench.
Setting the bag down, he covered his nose with a prepared cloth, then opened the bag, pulling out a canister of pungent gasoline. Without hesitation, he splashed it across the alley’s entrance and walls.
All set. He flicked a lighter, the tiny spark tracing a soft, deadly arc in the night.
Boom!
Flames erupted, orange-red tongues greedily licking the ground and walls, banishing much of the darkness while unleashing a scorching heat and acrid, burnt smell.
Dongfang felt the heat on his face, but his eyes remained icy. He tugged the black rhombus crystal on its cord from his neck, gripping it tightly, then backed to a relatively intact broken wall at the plaza’s edge, ensuring he wouldn’t be flanked.
The blazing firelight cast flickering shadows on his cap-shaded face, his dark eyes sharp as knives, locked on the flame-lit alley.
“Come on, come on,” he whispered, clutching the crystal, a suppressed excitement in his voice. “Don’t keep me waiting.”
The flames devoured debris and dry wall plaster, creeping upward, igniting the eaves and window frames of nearby abandoned houses. The buildings’ spacing kept the fire from spreading uncontrollably, staying manageable for now.
Ten minutes later, a fleeting golden flash—barely visible—streaked across his vision! Dongfang jerked his head aside instinctively—
Shing!
A petal-thin blade, edged with sharp golden light, sliced past his cheek, neatly cutting a notch in his baseball cap’s brim. A few severed black hairs drifted down in the hot wind.
“I didn’t expect you to be the new sinner, Dongfang,” a cold voice called from the firelit shadows.
“I had my suspicions it was you, transfer student,” Dongfang replied, straightening and tossing the damaged cap aside, his gaze calm but piercing through the flames. “Taking justice into your own hands? Bold move.”
The fire curtain split under a sweeping golden sword slash, heat waves parting as the white-hot flames seemed cowed by the force. Dongfang rolled, narrowly dodging a follow-up sword strike that could cleave steel and concrete.
“You mimic that arsonist, defiling sacred flames. Are you challenging the sanctity of justice, Dongfang?”
He laughed, standing and brushing dust from his pants, as if facing a street thug, not a blade that could slice iron.
“Challenge? You’ve got it backward, Knight Miss… You’re the challenger.”
Before his words faded, Reida’s form blurred into a golden streak through the flames, her longsword cutting the air with thunderous force, aimed at his heart!
Facing the lethal blade closing in, Dongfang calmly raised his hand, sliding the black crystal into the cold contract terminal on his wrist.
Boom!
A torrent of dark light erupted from him. Reida’s sword and unstoppable charge passed through the swirling black glow like it was a phantom, meeting no resistance, hitting nothing solid.
Reida stumbled a few steps before steadying herself on the open ground. Her usually impassive face, hidden under her helmet, showed a flicker of shock, her golden brows furrowing as she spun to face the fading black light.
“Fun fact: transformations come with invincibility frames,” a playful feminine voice teased from the dissipating glow.
As the light cleared, Zero stood in the plaza’s center under the firelight, her lithe yet powerful form stretching, flaunting her elegance to the night sky.
Her black eyes opened, reflecting the leaping flames, her battle spirit blazing. She pointed at the poised Golden Needle Knight.
“Strongest rookie, S-rank candidate? Hmph, my fists will show you you’re just a nobody who got lucky in a team without me!”